My understanding is that prednisone begins working pretty soon after taking it. We have a "stash" of prednisone for our daughter if she gets really bad in the middle of the night. If I ever give it to her on my own then I will take her to her regular Dr asap. My daughter's pediatrician will sometimes give her dexamethasone (sp?) in the Dr's office. I guess it takes longer to work but stays in the body longer.

My allergist has prescribed me 50mg of prednisone to carry with me at all times, with my epipens and benadryl. The reasoning behind this is that, I would start the course of prednisone sooner. It takes approx. 6 hrs to start working.

I have taken several short courses of Prednisone to deal with my asthma when it occasionally gets out of control. In my experience, oral Prednisone starts relieving my symptoms within one hour of taking it.

Hi, There is something called an "epipen" that can be used to open up the airway in an emergency. It mimics epinephrine which is a hormone made by the body in response to stress... it opens up the airways very fast, a matter of minutes. You can get the pen from your doc.. in times off need all you do is take the pen and put it in the thigh like a shot but it work through clothing also. hope this helps.

I also keep Prednisone on hand so that I am able to go ahead and get started on it without having to wait for my allergist to call in a prescription. As far as being able to suggest a dosage to you, I wouldn't do that. You need to talk to your doctor about that. After you've taken Prednisone numerous times, you will learn how much you need to start taking on your own before you see the doctor. If I get bronchitis, I go ahead and start myself on a lose dose. If I don't respond, then I call my allergist and see how much she recommends that I take. As far as it helping me when I am already into a full-blown asthma attack, it will not do that for me. A course of Prednisone after an attack will help prevent another attack from happening.

Kitt azmacort is not an emergency inhaler, Xopenex and albuterol are your rescue inhalers.I keep the prednisone on hand in 20mg and I'm very very careful with my medications. I use the Xopenex first if I have a flair and if that does not help I call my personel nurse as to what to do next before going to an ER. I thought that was nifty our insurance just assigned to me a personal nurse. Sorry I don't know which personal to use so this might be out of context but who cares,Hugs to all and Take CareP.S. epi pens are very good to have on hand as well for allergic asthma flairs, I need to get a new oneAsk your Doctor how you should handle an flair that does not respond to Xopenex and what to do in an emergency should something happen, I wish y'all well

You are absolutely right about the epipen as I carried one for my daughter for years for severe reactions but she has outgrown her allergies............

Albuterol is your rescue inhaler. Please remember to warn you children to not run out of their inhalers.

We had a teen at the highschool that was having an asthma attack and had run out of her own inhaler and used someone elses, don't remember what the drug was but by the time the paramedics got to her she was in full respiratory arrest. She died. So sad.

This is a great forum.

Respectfully

Kitt

Depression 25 years, Husband Crohns Disease 30 years

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"If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can’t accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.”

I am a respiratory therapist and Prednisone is NOT A RESCUE MEDICATION!!! It is prescribed to decrease inflammation in the airways. The reason it is Rx'd at the same time when you are having an attack is that bronchodilators work on dilating the airways while the corticosteroid works on "cooling" the airway inflammation. Therefore they work "hand-in-hand" on making you better. Also, make certain you know which of your bronchodilators are rescue meds and which ones are long-acting bronchodilators.

Info meant as educational purposes only and not as med advice...seek immediately med attn if exacerbation occurs and you cannot get it under control.

awe Kitt so sorry that happened. Everyone if you have asthma find out what to do in an emergency from your doctor and what hospital your doctor works in, so you know what to do and where to go should a emergency happen. We never know when emergencies will happen so be prepared!!!Take Care and HugzOh nice to meet you Kittand pegleg I never said prednisone was an emergency med, only that I have it on hand. Thanks

That is good advice pegleg:) I didn't know for a long time that combivent wasn't my rescue inhaler and ended up in the hospital three times for a week each time. Nobody told me in all that time. I learned I didn't have a rescue inhaler from chat here! I have one now and it sure helps. Some pulmonologists are just too busy(for the big bucks) and forget to treat the whole person when they are not hospitalized. My pulmonologist puts me on prednisone and antibiotics and says come back in TWO months...what if you don't get better and need to be seen?? He is booked up solid for a month at a time. Lot of help that is. My regular doctor says he doesn't want to step on the pulmonologists toes and treat me differently...so where to go when sick?? Pulonologists think you can go to the hospital all the time but the cost is high. Pegleg has helped me take care of myself better. Thanks:)

Ceebee hun maybe you could see an allergy/asthma doctor to help treat you inbetween the pulmonologist visits. Make sure your allergy/asthma doctor (not a pcp) has privileges at the hospital you go to for emergency.I hope this helps, Take Care and keep us posted. Hugz and get well soon..........Oh if you are seeing an allergy/asthma doctor and he/she told you that then get another one. a good allergy/asthma doctor will work with you with thw pulmonologist to get you better.....

Well Pegleg, maybe this is just semantics but I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you slightly about Prednisone. I think it IS an emergency rescue medicine for asthmatics. It is clearly not the rescue medicine one should turn to first, but when the usual rescue meds (Albuterol, Xopenex) aren't getting the job done, then you have a real emergency and that is when Prednisone or another systemic steroid is usually prescribed. My pulmonologist gave me a bunch of it to keep on hand for those kind of emergencies and it has kept me out of the emergency room on two occasions over the past year.

Of course, it's not good for a person to be on it for very long, but if you have a choice between taking it or not breathing, the choice becomes clear.